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4th grade · Science · Unit 1 of 8

Energy, Speed & Collisions

Faster things have more energy.

What your child practices

Practices how an object's speed relates to its energy, what happens to energy when objects collide, and devices that change energy from one form to another.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 4.P4U1.1 · how a system transfers energy from one object to another

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Faster objects have more energy.
  2. Stored energy can change into motion, light, heat or sound.
  3. In a collision, energy moves between objects, and they change speed or direction.
  4. Rubbing things together turns motion into heat.

Example: A rolling ball hits a ball that is sitting still. What happens to the still ball? The moving ball passes some of its energy on. Answer: it starts moving

Energy, Speed & Collisions in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 1 of 8 in 4th grade Science, before Waves & Codes.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Arizona Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A solar panel changes light energy into…

    • wind
    • sound energy only
    • electrical energy
    • food

  2. Question 2

    A faster-moving bike hits a curb. Compared with a slow bike it has…

    • no energy
    • less energy
    • more energy
    • the same energy

  3. Question 3

    A rubber band car moves when the band unwinds. Stored energy becomes…

    • motion energy
    • sound only
    • light energy
    • food

  4. Question 4

    A bowling ball hits the pins. Energy moves to…

    • nowhere
    • the moon
    • the pins
    • the ceiling only

  5. Question 5

    In a collision, objects often…

    • change speed or direction
    • grow bigger
    • turn to water
    • vanish

  6. Question 6

    Two identical balls roll. One goes 2 m per second, the other 5 m per second. Which knocks over more blocks?

    • Neither
    • They knock the same
    • The 5 m per second ball
    • The 2 m per second ball

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